Carrying and balancing two or more cans while working in plumbing, painting, construction, or simply around the house, yard, or garage sometimes present a real chore and at other times lead to accidents, spilling, or dropping the cans or their contents. These concerns also give rise to inefficient downtime, costly extra helpers, and increased aggravation for the user.
Addressing plumbers as just one illustrative and non-limiting example, plumbers for years have been carrying one can containing glue and a second can containing primer for joining pipes, such as pipes made of PVC. For instance, plumbers often bond two PVC pipes together by cleaning with primer the areas on the respective pipes to be bonded. After priming the areas, the plumber applies PVC glue to the areas and then brings those areas together in a coupling engagement. Once the glue dries, the pipes are bonded.
Quite often, the plumber's work carries over to many other locations at the job site or even to different job sites, thereby necessitating the plumber to transport the cans. A common practice among plumbers includes using duct tape or electrical tape to join the cans together and then carrying them as a single unit to the next location. While such a practice might help in rare instances when the cans are depleted at the same time, in the more typical case one can is depleted first. As a result, the plumber must carry scissors or a knife and cut the used can free from the tape only to tape a new can to the partially used can. The original partially used can will invariably deplete before the new can, however, thereby requiring the plumber to repeat these cumbersome taping and un-taping steps with yet another new can, and so on.
Others have attempted to resolve these problems previously. As one example, United States Published Patent Application No. 2004/0089688A1 (“the '688 application”) shows clasps having an aperture of predetermined dimension for introducing containers. The apertures, which are C-shaped for inserting containers, measure from approximately 2 to 4 inches in width. In order to insert the containers through the side aperture in the '688 application, the clasps must allow flexing. To be flexible, however, decreases the pull-out strength between the pair of clasps. In other words, the flexibility property between the clasps competes with the holding property of the clasps. As otherwise stated, increasing the clasp strength may increase the holding property but results in decreased flexibility and, therefore, increased difficulty in spreading the clasps apart for inserting the containers. In addition, a clasp having increased rigidity may, during insertion through the aperture, sustain plastic deformation, damage the container, or risk injuring the user.
Like the clasps with apertures as shown in the '688 application, U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,624 (“the '624 patent”) illustrates clips having apertures for spreading apart and thereby receiving a can. One embodiment shows the need for upper and lower clips for each can, while another embodiment shows the lower clip being replaced with pans having a flat base for the cans to rest on. These clips give rise to the problems already described in connection with the clasps in the '688 application.
The devices for detachably securing cans and other objects solves these and other problems by providing securing members having holding arms according to the present invention.
Turning to another problem with the devices illustrated in the '624 patent and the '688 application, the '624 patent, for instance, fails to teach any feature for securing the horizontal position of the cans. On the contrary, the '624 patent shows a fastener for attaching to an overhead structure like a ceiling joist, and the fastener extends vertically upward from an arm designed for allowing the device to rotate and tilt. This very rotating and tilting, however, contribute to the problems with accidents, spilling, or dropping the cans resolved with the present invention. Furthermore, overhead suspended devices present safety concerns to the user and other workers at a work site. In addition, one fastener bears the entire weight of both cans. The '688 application shows a device having an opening between an arm on one side and a folded-down tongue and hook on the other side for sliding designed to be worn about a user's belt or simply hanging from a structure. As a consequence, the cans move with all of the degrees of freedom of the person who is wearing the device on the waist. Furthermore, because the vertical arm in the '688 application is offset to one side relative to the adjacent clasps, the weight of the cans is not evenly distributed when the device hangs from a structure, and the device thereby becomes unstable.
The devices for detachably securing cans and other objects solves these and other problems by providing a brace body having a bracket according to the present invention.